Recent bulletins on Health

October 9, 2017 Africa/Global: Tobacco Industry Targets Africa Markets
http://www.africafocus.org/docs17/tob1710.php
"British American Tobacco (BAT) and other multinational tobacco firms have threatened
governments in at least eight countries in Africa demanding they axe or dilute the
kind of protections that have saved millions of lives in the west, a Guardian
investigation has found. ... The giant tobacco firms hope to boost their markets in
Africa, which has a fast-growing young and increasingly prosperous population." - The
Guardian

August 23, 2017 USA/Africa: No Policy? Bad Policy? Or Both?
http://www.africafocus.org/docs17/usa1708.php
"Africa is terra incognita for the Trump Administration: a continent it cares
little--and understands even less--about. With no dyed-in-the-wool Trumpian Africa
hands available, the administration appears ready to cede Africa policy making to
career civil servants and a few mainstream Republican appointees." - Matthew T. Page

July 10, 2017 Africa/Global: Following the Money
http://www.africafocus.org/docs17/iff1707.php
"As an important tool in our fight against corruption, tax evasion, terrorist
financing and money laundering, we will advance the effective implementation of the
international standards on transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons and
legal arrangements, including the availability of information in the domestic and
crossborder context." - G20 Summit Communiqué, Hamburg, July 8, 2017

May 30, 2017 USA/Africa: "Pro-Death" Health Agendas Advance
http://www.africafocus.org/docs17/health1705.php
"3.3 million more abortions. 15,000 more mothers dying. 8 million more unplanned
pregnancies. ... Those grim numbers from the Guttmacher Institute show the potential
real-world impact of the Trump administration's unprecedented proposed cuts to global
family planning efforts; the budget the White House released Tuesday would basically
eliminate those programs." - Sarah Wildman, Vox, May 24, 2017

October 4, 2016 West Africa/Europe: Toxic Fuels for African Markets
http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/dd1610.php
European commodity trading companies in Switzerland, using petroleum
'blending' plants in the Netherlands and Belgium, are exporting
toxic fuels to Africa in large quantity. "Their business model,"
according to a new report from the Swiss organization Public Eye,
"relies on an illegitimate strategy of deliberately lowering the
quality of fuels in order to increase their profits. Using a common
industry practice called blending, trading companies mix cheap but
toxic intermediate petroleum products to make what the industry
calls 'African Quality' fuels."

July 26, 2016 Africa/Global: Not Yet "End of AIDS"
http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/hiv1607.php
At the 21st International AIDS Conference in South Africa last week,
"optimism faded as delegates arrived to news that donor countries
had reduced global HIV funding by more than $1 billion from 2014 to
2015. ... Nearly 20 million people are [still] in need of
antiretroviral therapy. [and] nearly half of the $44 billion cost
could be unfunded between 2016 and 2020." - Washington Post, July
25, 2016

June 30, 2016 Africa/Global: Air Pollution Threats & Solutions
http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/air1606.php
"Around 6.5 million deaths are attributed each year to poor air
quality, making this the world’s fourth-largest threat to human
health, behind high blood pressure, dietary risks and smoking.
Without changes to the way that the world produces and uses energy,
the ruinous toll from air pollution on human life is set to rise.
... Household air pollution, closely linked to a lack of access to
modern energy services, causes around half a million premature
deaths annually in sub-Saharan Africa, where four-fifths of the
population rely on the traditional use of solid biomass for cooking,
and candles and kerosene lamps are extensively used for indoor
lighting." - International Energy Agency (IEA)

June 22, 2016 Africa/Global: "Stop the Bleeding" Updates
http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/stb1606.php
"A new report by Tax Justice Network-Africa and ActionAid says that
East African countries (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda) are
losing approximately $2 billion a year of revenue each year by
granting tax incentives to multinational companies. ... According to
Yaekob Metena, ActionAid Tanzania's country director, 'Though there
have been improvements in recent years in addressing the issue,
governments in East Africa continue to give away domestic resources
in tax incentives, funds that could pay for the regions' education
and health needs and meeting the development objectives.'"

June 13, 2016 Africa/Global: Don't Be a Fossil Fool
http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/clim1606.php
From solar TVs in rural Kenya to modular concrete for windmills in
Iowa, the pace of technological advance continues to accelerate,
making renewable fuels more and more competitive with fossil fuels.
Technology alone will not be sufficient, of course. But these
trends, combined with worldwide climate activism and increasing awareness
among the public and government policy-makers, are leading even
establishment analysts to conclude that, in the words of the
Financial Times, "fossil fuel producers face a future of slow and
steady decline."

October 28, 2015 South Sudan: Hard-Hitting Report from African Union
http://www.africafocus.org/docs15/ssud1510.php
"Based on its inquiry, the Commission finds that there are
reasonable grounds to believe that acts of murder, rape and sexual
violence, torture and other inhumane acts of comparable gravity,
outrages upon personal dignity, targeting of civilian objects and
protected property, as well as other abuses, have been committed by
both sides to the conflict."

October 20, 2015 Africa: Tax Tricks, Mobile Phones, and Beer
http://www.africafocus.org/docs15/td1510.php
"Despite MTN having its headquarters located in South Africa, 55% of
the "management and technical fee payments" flow to "MTN
International" (MTNI)--a company which has no staff and is located
in Mauritius. The remaining 45% was paid to MTN Dubai--a subsidiary
which the company says it renders international financial services
and shared services to MTN Group." - Quartz Africa, on new report by
amaBhungane and Finance Uncovered

October 13, 2015 Africa/Global: Health Challenges & Threats
http://www.africafocus.org/docs15/rth1510.php
Last week was the first week since March 2014 that no new cases of Ebola
were reported in West Africa. And late last month the World Health Organization
announced official guidelines for beginning antiretroviral therapy
for all persons infected with HIV even before they show symptoms of
AIDS. Fully eradicating either disease and building sustainable
health system remain formidable challenges, however. At the same
time, U.S. policy to promote greater protection for large
pharmaceutical companies in trade negotiations poses a still rising
threat to global efforts to guarantee the universal right to health.